As is now becoming a habit, I started this blog whilst being a ‘guest’ on Eurowings, flying back from Prague to Malaga. I mentioned what a great experience that was last time, and this flight was no different. However, I have to say that arriving at Prague Airport on Saturday morning was pretty damn depressing as there was absolutely no-one there – as can be seen from the photos here. Even the customs officials were chatty as they were so bored, whilst the few shops that were open were desperate; most with up to 70% discount on all products, and all with just one person standing around wondering what to do. Our boarding gate was positively buzzing compared to all the others, with about 20 people preparing to get onto our flight – which begs the question, how much longer are these planes going to keep flying (again).
Whilst we experienced deserted airports when we first started flying after our 100 days of lockdown in March-June 2020, I don’t really understand it now. Is it because people are still worried about catching Covid on the plane (in which case, as I have said before, don’t be!) At the moment, airports and planes are probably the safest places to be, since no-one can venture near them without being vaccinated and tested up to the eyeballs). Or, in the case of the Czech Republic in particular, because it seemed to us that just about everyone has Covid?! I say that as our stay in Prague was a bit of a waste of time with so many of our meetings and other activities cancelled due to people being either sick or in quarantine, so in the end we didn’t achieve too much (added to which I refused to even go out if I didn’t have to as it was just so cold – nice to see the snow, of course, but so much nicer to return to the sun!)
We did, though, get our booster (to which I , 'Mrs Allergy', managed to have a nasty allergic reaction - a sore rash (which I believe is called 'coming out in hives' but that sounds hideous) all over my neck and 'decollage' - also to have our boiler repaired (unbelievable that it packed up the day after we arrived), order new glasses (also unbelievable that I broke them on the plane coming in), see a few of our friends and attend a couple of business meetings. And, of course, watch a lot of the Australian Open (in my case, mostly whilst pedalling away on my very uncomfortable exercise bike) and haven’t we all (except Jan of course) forgotten about Novax, sorry Novak, now! As expected. (Incidentally, I wrote this bit before I saw on the news this morning that it looks as if Novax's Covid test WAS doctored - I was going to say 'incredible' but of course it is what some of us kind of expected).
Anyway, we have watched some fantastic matches and, as usual (in the men's draw anyway) the very best players in the world came through to the semis (and would Novax have beaten all of those in his draw... personally I think not). I wonder what will happen next on the whole Novax front – we saw another bit of news over the weekend that Serbia had revoked the license for Rio Tinto (an Australian company) to continue lithium mining in their country. Hmmm. I can’t help feeling that that is going to turn out to be a bit of a shot in their own foot (apologies to any Serbs reading this, but I just don't see Australia being too economically hurt from falling out with Serbia, but the reverse might apply...).
Still on tennis, sorry - watching the guys now (and girls for that matter) we always wonder how they would get on against the stars from previous generations. In the ladies' game, in particular, things have improved so much that you can't imagine someone like Chrissy Evert in her prime winning even a point against the girls now. Will we say the same in 20 or 30 years time? Hard to imagine. Pondering that reminded me of a bit of Czech news that I saw earlier this week - a well-known Czech businessman was fined for driving at 411 kmph on a German motorway. My first question on reading that was 'who caught him?!', but then I read that he had proudly posted a video of himself driving at that speed (surely the scariest bit of all is that he was actually videoing himself at the same time?), which the Germans then jumped on.
It is not so long ago that a British nutcase driving a car called, I think, Bluebird, regularly tried and sometimes did beat the land-speed record for a car (admittedly on a beach), but he still didn't reach a speed of more than 400 kmph. And yet you can now buy a 'regular' car that can do better than that. Whether that is an improvement or not remains to be seen - which is what could be said about many things if you think about it.
Czech and Spanish news, apart from talking about Covid and arguing about politics, is mostly focused on the Ukrainian/Russian situation just now, understandably. Meantime in the UK the news veers from talking about the Ukraine, to not talking about the still awful Covid situation (which, according to BJ, is all sorted and finished), to trying not to talk about his endless partying during Covid. No doubt there will be more exposes over the next few weeks, but honestly I depress myself even writing about him (and Covid) anymore (which I am sure anyone that has read my previous blogs will be pleased to hear).
There was, though, one snippet in the UK papers that caught my eye, and that was the news that 'young people' nowadays do not know some of the English phrases that my generation grew up with, and that they are in danger of being lost from the language. Not on my watch, I say! As regular readers of my blog will know, I love to use some of these phrases (and actually did, above!), even though they can cause some confusion for non-native-English speakers (even Jan, who calls himself (and is, also,) British, and does speak, admittedly, perfect English, can be surprised sometimes!).
I have mentioned before about my assistant being concerned about her boyfriend's ex-wife 'taking him for a ride' (something that seems to happen on a regular basis in the CR... sorry if I 'have dropped a clanger'), and I regularly 'go pear-shaped' and get 'my knickers in a twist', plus I do need to 'spend a penny' from time to time. You 'get my drift' - and if you don't, Google '50 popular English phrases and you will find the explanations. For now, anyway, I will leave it at that as even here in Marbella the evenings are a bit chilly, and I am at risk of becoming as 'cold as a witch's' tit'.
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